Ste. Michelle Estates President and CEO Ted Baseler says those three wineries so far have not been hit directly by flames, but were without power for a time and are shrouded — as is the whole region — in ash and smoke. His first concern is for his employees and the people of the region.

“This is a horrific situation with a terrible loss of life,” he says. “We are getting updates every few hours, and we understand that as many as 3,000 homes and buildings have burned. Our deepest sympathy goes to the victims and their families.”

Baseler indicating that Ste. Michelle will help with the region’s recovery efforts, when those start.

He says that the situation is still volatile. Ste. Michelle has moved a fire truck, equipped with hoses and a big water tank, from Eastern Washington to Ste. Michelle’s Conn Creek Winery to help with streaming water if necessary on buildings and vineyards.

He said that when the power went out at all three wineries, employees carted in generators by hand, down roads closed to car traffic, all the way to the wineries to get power needed to cool the tanks.

“Our employees have been amazing,” he says. “Incredible.”

The real challenge now is getting the grower grapes in and processed, he says, and having enough workers to pick the grapes and bring them in. “It is a good thing is that we are 90 percent done,” Baseler said.

Baseler has heard that things are getting a little better but this is far from over. “You never know,” he says. “The winds could shift at any time again. The challenge is that the fires have been moving around so much and if the wind picks up, it could start all over again.”

He says at this time, he is trying to determine, through his managers in California, which employees have lost their homes or been displaced. “We know some have been evacuated from their homes. We are offering counseling to our employees and some economic assistance,” he says.

California's famous wine region already has been dealing with one of the worst droughts in decades.

It was three years ago that Baseler was dealing with the ravages of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that rattled the heart of California’s wine country – the most powerful temblor in that area since 1989, right as the grape harvest was starting that year.